Chuck vs Valentine's Day
by emu ostriches
Summary: My attempt at a longer fan fic, Chuck invites Sarah to a Valentine's Day party, but will national security take a higher priority than love? Happens a day after 2X14 Chuck vs. Best Friend
1. Someone Cares For You

**Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, but in my dreams I own Sarah and Ellie**

**Not beta'ed' all mistakes are mine**

**My first attempt at a long fic, not related to my other fic Chuck vs. Karaoke, if you haven't read it yet, check it out.**

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**Prologue:**

**A week before Valentine's Day**

It was another slow day the the Orange Orange as usual. The customer she was was serving at the moment was the first of the day, and it was almost noon, the gaggle of teenage boys will come in about 4 more hours, till then, there is really not much to do.

She lets her mind wander back to the previous day, when she let her guard down for a moment,

_They were watching Jeffster play Toto's Africa, when she tells Chuck 'I don't really have anyone in my life who cares about me."_

_Chuck turns towards her, "Yea, you do."_

Sarah was shocked back into reality when she slightly overfilled the cup and some of the contents spilled onto her finger.

"Here you go, a raspberry and peach frozen yogurt and raisins on top, that would be $4.25." The man counted his change and handed it to here, "Thanks and have a good day." "You too."

It was not what Chuck said, it was the most innocuous statement, however, it was the way Chuck had said it and how he had proved countless times in the past. He said it in a way that was more like a husband than an asset or a friend. She was touched to the deepness of her heart. She remembered what she did after. Sarah grabs onto his hand and squeezes it. The gesture says more than words itself.

Sarah took a quick look at her watch, and sighed. There was still exactly 2 minutes and 34 seconds till the bright spot of her morning comes to spend his lunch break with her.

At that moment, a delivery man walks in with 2 sandwiches from Lou's, Sarah pays him and awaits Chuck's arrival.

Sarah thought back to the previous year when they first started this tradition. It was only a way for Sarah to remind Chuck on how to keep his cover or mission debriefings. When Chuck complained that it was taking his lunch break away and that he rather spend time playing Call of Duty with Morgan during that time. Sarah tells him that it is to keep their cover, _"If your girlfriend worked 2 minutes away from where you worked, wouldn't you visit her during lunch break?"_ Chuck caved in eventually and stopped complaining about his 'lost time'. But to Sarah's massive surprise, he started to come over even when she had nothing to debrief him on and he came over every day without fail so far. Sarah knew she should have stopped it from happening, but she really enjoyed his company and allowed it to continue on and talk about trivial matters. It was a time when she could truly just be herself.

The bell rings, Sarah tilts her head up and sees the million watt smile of one particular man named Chuck Bartowski. He calls out "Hi Sarah, what's for lunch today?" leaning over the counter and giving Sarah a kiss on the cheek, then a light kiss on the lips.

Sarah smiles back at him and asks, "What was that for? There's no one around to protect our cover."

Chuck shrugs, "I can never resist doing that with a beautiful girl." Sarah looks cross, "So, have you been kissing other girls? Have you been cheating on me and on our relationship?"

Chuck corrects her, "Cover relationship, and no, why would I do that when I already have the most beautiful girl in the world as my cover girlfriend."

Sarah smiles at the compliment, "You're off the hook this one time, don't even think about cheating on our cover relationship." Sarah reaches under the counter and takes out the two sandwiches she just bought, "Here you go, a special delivery from Lou's, don't worry, I asked for extra olives on yours." Leading Chuck to one of the tables.

They had an enjoyable lunch together, talking about latest antics of the fearsome duo, Jeff and Lester. How they wanted to do a concert at the Buy More Parking Lot and how they are going to become famous after the success of their playing at the Buy More last night. Sarah laughs as she remembers the reaction of half the audience present.

Chuck suddenly goes completely silent, and stares at his half-eaten sandwich and mumbles out a second.

Sarah stares at him blankly, "What did you say?"

Chuck takes a deep breath, looks up and says almost impossibly quickly, "Um, Valentine's Day is coming up as you might, actually probably might not know, unless Bryce celebrates Valentine's Day with you, but that's not the point, so basically Ellie and Awesome is hosting a Valentine's Day party at the Hyatt hotel and more or less confronted me with a knife until I promise that you and I would attend it. So in a nutshell, what I am trying to ask you is do you want to be my Valentine's date." Chuck says that all in one breath and is now trying to catch his breath again.

Sarah looks at him, smiles and replies, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Chuck gave Sarah a smile that was probably bigger than his face, "Awesome, I'm gonna tell Ellie right now, actually she asked me to ask you whether you want to have dinner at our place tonight, so we can tell her tonight."

Sarah replies, "Sounds good, I'll meet you at around 7."

Sarah thinks, "Nice, another Ellie dinner, something more to look forward to other than lunch."

**So basically this is just the prologue and if you haven't deduced it yet, this is going to be a Valentine's Day themed fic, I will introduce the mission soon. I'm hoping that this fic will last a good number of chapters and can give you guys something to look forward to.**

**Review, it gives me a better idea of what I'm doing right or what I'm doing wrong, REVIEW**


	2. Caring For Your Family

**Thanks for the reviews, here's the new chapter to Chuck vs. Valentine's Day**

**A week before Valentine's**

Sarah knocked on the door at 7 sharp, and is met by Chuck Bartowski's million watt smile accompanied by a waft of Ellie's 5 star cooking.

Sarah was wearing a light blue dress with spaghetti straps with beautiful ripples, she also wore matching high heels that accentuated her eyes and natural beauty. It not only captured Chuck's attention, evident by Chuck's eyes doubling in size, it also gave an aura of elegance.

Sarah and Chuck walked in hand – hand and a shout came from the kitchen, "Is that Sarah?" followed by Ellie Bartowski, Chuck's beautiful sister. Ellie gave Sarah a big hug and said, "Okay, I have 10 more minutes until the roast beef is done, so girl talk. I have a bone to chew with my brother later."

Ellie led Chuck towards the couches, "So I heard, last year, you two didn't celebrate Valentine's, and I think you two have been dating 2 months at the time." Ellie's eyes pierced Sarah's. Sarah was worried, "Um.... I..." and Ellie interrupts her, "I can't believe my brother didn't arrange dinner or buy a gift for you, he didn't even make an effort. When Chuck told me yesterday, I was so scared. You could have dumped him. So I'm gonna help him make up for it this year. And again, I apologize for my stupid moron of a brother."

"Don't worry about it, I think it was a mutual decision to not celebrate it last year. We both had things going on that we thought were more important than celebrating Valentine's."

Ellie coos, "Aww... that is so sweet, you trying to defend Chuck, but no, urgh... I can't believe Chuck didn't do anything for you last year during Valentine's."

Sarah resigns, knowing that there is no way she could redeem Chuck. Just then, an alarm rings, "Oh, that's my roast beef." The doorbell rings as well. "Sarah, can you get that?"

Chuck comes to the door as well, breaking off from a conversation with Devon, "So what did Ellie say?"

"Just that you are a moron for not celebrating Valentine's with me last year, come to think of it, I'm also a little bit pissed."

"What, didn't we have an overnight mission that day?"

"I know, just kidding, but what I do hope is that nothing would interrupt our Valentine's this year."

"I hope so," Chuck opens the door, revealing two of Ellie's friends. Chuck laughs with delight when he sees the girl, Natalie, who is also a doctor at the hospital and has been to several of the parties at Casa Bartowski. She is really pretty, with wavy blonde hair, high cheekbones and full lips, standing slightly taller than Sarah, looking like a model coming off a page of Vogue. Come to think of it, Ellie tried to set them up together several times already and Natalie had made the first move the last time they met before he met Sarah.

Natalie immediately envelops Chuck in a hug, "Oh my God Chuck, you look good, how long has it been the last time we met, 4 months?" She turns to Sarah and offers her hand, "And you must be Sarah, the person who got Chuck out of his mourning. I made a move before and he completely ignored me, but I think we can be good friends." As Sarah takes her hand.

"Oh and I forgot my manners, this is Dave, he's a nurse at the hospital." Dave was the same height as Natalie, he is wearing a dress shirt and jeans, but looking slightly nerdy. However, Chuck could see the muscles bristling under his shirt as he took Chuck's hand. He gave Sarah and Chuck a dazzling smile, "Hi, I'm Dave, pleased to meet you both."

"How long have you two been going out for?"

"Dave transferred to the hospital 6 weeks ago and we've started dating 3 weeks ago."

Ellie called out from the kitchen, "Chuck, if you don't invite them inside, you will be outside during dinner and I'm locking the Morgan Door."

Chuck turns around to let them inside, almost clattering Sarah, "Crap, where's my manners, come in, come in."

Natalie laughs as she walks in, "Oh my god, you are just so adorable."

Sarah whispers to Chuck, somewhat in disbelief, "You ignored her when she made a move on you?"

Chuck replies, "I know, but in my defense, I was kinda still in my Jill slump and I was probably too surprised to know how to react. But please don't hurt her, she's a close friend and she's really nice. And she's always kinda flirty to everyone. She even does that to Awesome."

Sarah says, "No, I like her, she seems really nice."

Ellie shouts from the kitchen, "Devon, a little help here please? Chuck, you too, finish setting up the table. Natalie, can you grab a couple of glasses out? I'll pour the wine as soon as I get out here." Each person quickly accomplishing Ellie's orders.

Dinner passed without much trouble, enjoying each others company. As time passed, Sarah grew to love Natalie, she was funny and warm, her enthusiasm and affection was infectious. Dave, on the other hand, was an enigma, somewhat opposite of Natalie, he was quiet, only talking when he was spoken to. He seemed to be also vigilant about something, like he was scared he was being watched, which he was in Casa Bartowski. Yet he would suddenly laugh at a joke someone made and flash another dazzling smile. He is probably just wary of his girlfriend's flirtatious nature.

After dinner ended, the party moved towards the living room, eating dessert, drinking wine and talking.

Sarah perched herself on Chuck's lap and sharing a piece of cake together, Chuck asked her why she is not getting a piece for herself and she answered that she doesn't want to eat too much cake. Chuck knew that she could kick-box her way out of those calories and he really appreciated the gesture.

Sarah suddenly readjusted her seating arrangement and leaned in closer to Chuck. She continued the motion and leans closer and closer towards Chuck's lips. He obliges and meets her half-way meeting in a delicious cake filled kiss. Chuck loved the strawberry taste on Sarah's lips. "Oh my god, you taste delicious." he moans.

A cough interrupts the moment, Ellie giggles and says, "Um... Chuck, there's still other people here, we don't want to see what you and Sarah are usually up to in your room." Chuck can see that Ellie and Sarah's faces have turned a bright red, Devon winking at Chuck, mouthing "Awesome." Natalie has her hand over her heart, "Oh my God, that's so cute."

Chuck's ears turned red, "Sorry, I got caught in the moment." Sarah slowly turned back towards him, with a lusty look in her eyes. When she faced Chuck, her features completely changed to one of urgency and whispers in his ear, "Chuck, Casey just signaled us," Chuck catching Casey's shadow in his room out of the corner of his eye, "We have a meeting with Beckman in 10 minutes."

"Hey sis, I think Sarah's getting tired and she had quite an amount to drink, so I'm gonna take her back to her place."

Devon points at Chuck and winks at him, "Bro, getting excess energy out of your system, awesome!"

"Devon! That's my brother you are talking about," Ellie admonishes, gently hitting Devon at the same time.

Natalie gets off the couch and gives both Chuck and Sarah a hug, "It's good to see you too, you two better be at the Valentine's Day party."

"You know we will be, won't miss it for the world or else Ellie will kill me, we'll see you there."

Sarah and Chuck wave back at the seated figures and leave the apartment hand in hand.

Sarah takes a quick look around, making sure that no one is watching them, then leads Chuck towards Casey's apartment. She knocks on the door, and Casey opens it with a grunt, "Took you two long enough. Come on, the General will be on in 5."

The General flashes on the monitor exactly 5 minutes later, "Good evening team. I have a special mission for you." The general's screen halved in size and a picture of an Asian man came up on the other screen, this is Yoshiro Nakamura."

Chuck encountered a series of flashes, "Yoshiro Nakamura, a leader in a prostitution ring, mostly transporting Orientals and Russian girls to the USA or Western Europe. That's all I've got."

Another series of images came up on the General's screen, Chuck's face contorted as another series of flashes bombarded him. "Geez, you gotta warn me about it before you do that." As Chuck shakes his head to clear himself.

"Anyways, Yoshiro is already in Los Angeles, 4 other known 'suppliers' are also in the city and I'm really pissed off about this, apparently there is going to be a meeting with a dozen 'purchasers' and those other 4 'suppliers' at the Grand Hyatt in 7 days. I'll write down the names for you." Sarah gave Chuck a look, he thought, "Was it hurt?" But it was gone within a second before he could register it.

"Okay team Bartowski, this is a major meeting, I want you to find out what this big meeting is about and if possible collect evidence so we can arrest them. This is a very big chance for us to finally curb prostitution in the United States, possibly even in the whole world if the players are as big as you say they are. Beckman ou..."

Chuck interrupts her, right before she signs out, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, can you please send another team to do this job, please. It's Valentine's Day and..."

Casey snickers, "And what Bartowski, you think you are can spend it with Walker?" Giving off an amused grunt.

"No, Ellie planned a party at the Grand Hyatt that day. Oh crap." As Chuck realizes that he just gave Beckman another excuse to use Team Bartowski.

Beckman says, "This gives the team a perfect infiltration cover, Casey, see if you can get yourself invited to the party."

"But General," Chuck begins to whine, but Beckman has already signed out. "Damn it, what if Ellie finds out about our mission, or if she gets in danger, I want these two worlds separate from each other. Dammit." Chuck started to become distressed, "I still remember the last time that happened, when the guy with the truth serum drugged Ellie, the incident at Christmas, they have not turned out well."

Sarah speaking for the first time since the beginning of the meeting, "Don't worry Chuck, we'll keep your family safe," And she pulls Chuck close to her.

**Okay, so basically the big bad meeting is during the Valentine's Day Party, how would things turn out?**

**I really like writing about angst and how Chuck and Sarah's relationship not working due to CIA/ other stuff, but since its Valentine's themed, I might put in some Charah if there are enough reviews**

**This is my first venture into the action/adventure writing so I really appreciate reviews **

**Don't look, just press the button below and type what your heart desires REVIEW!**


	3. Green Fields

**Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, but in my dreams I own Sarah and Ellie**

**Not beta'ed' all mistakes are mine**

**My first attempt at a long fic, not related to my other fic Chuck vs. Karaoke, if you haven't read it yet, check it out.**

**Valentine's Day is coming up, and of course, before Valentine's, you always have to buy a gift for your special other. So, without further ado, the new chapter to Chuck vs. Valentine's Day**

**5 days till Valentine's**

Chuck is having an amazing sleep.

Sarah is having one of her sleep-overs and is wearing her seduce-the-boyfriend lingerie, to make it easier for her to sleep, she took off the transparent material, leaving her wearing something directly out of a Victoria Secret catalogue.

When they first went to sleep, there was a clear feet between them, as the night wore on, they edged closer and closer together. Now at 6am, Chuck has his arm under Sarah's neck and one of Sarah's arms is lying across his chest.

It is also at this time when a mysterious figure is slowly opening the door to Chuck's room. The figure slowly crept to Chuck's side of the bed and shook Chuck up, placing a hand on top of his mouth before he could scream.

Chuck shockingly woke up to Devon, with a finger to his mouth, telling him to be quiet and motioning him to go out of the room. He worriedly looks back at Sarah and notices that she is in her I'm alert, but pretending I'm asleep stance and know that she would eavesdrop on their conversation as soon as he leaves the room.

Chuck follows Devon into the living room, Chuck looks at him confusingly, "What's going on, why did you wake me up at 6 in the morning."

"Alright bro, you know Valentine's Day is in 5 days, so I'm think that you and I should drive to that new outlet village mall to do some shopping, it's a two hour drive from here, so we'll get there right when it opens. They have some awesome deals there with stuff that's so awesome we can't get it here yet till next month. And they have this huge sports store from Russia that I want to check out. It's gonna be awesome."

"Sure Devon, let me go get dressed first." Chuck shuffles back to his room, with none of the enthusiasm of Captain Awesome as he is still tired.

When he re-enters the room. he meets the stare of Sarah Walker which immediately woke him up, "You agreed to go on a shopping trip with Awesome, two hours away?" Chuck looks at her sheepishly, "In essence, what I agreed to was that I would travel with Devon to an awesome new outlet village mall where the two of us can get something nice for our loved ones. In my case, I want to get something for Ellie and you."

"Alright, but Casey would have to follow you to make sure that you are safe, I would do it myself, but it would be easier for him to stay inconspicuous. Is that clear? And no whining about it. Nor puppy eyes Chuck!"

Chuck stopped putting on his best puppy eyes. He started to laugh in spite of himself. Sarah looked at him menacingly, "What are you laughing about?" Chuck can barely put two words together, "You... you mean you want to …. want to put Casey in a mall so near to …. haha.... so near to Valentine's, where everywhere is filled with lady stuff?" Chuck burst into huge fits of laughter, imagining Casey's face at the moment if he is listening onto their conversation.

Sarah tried to keep on a stout face, but he could see the corner of her lips twitching, no sooner, Sarah joined him in a heap of laughter.

Chuck joined Devon outside his car 5 minutes later and they started on their 2 hour trip to that outlet mall. 5 minutes after they left the complex, Chuck fell back into a deep sleep.

As soon as Chuck left, Sarah placed a quick call to Casey, waking him from his slumber, "What?"

"Chuck and Devon are heading to the outlet mall called Green Fields, it's about 2 hours out, I think it would be better if you watch them."

"Why is he going all the way there?" He paused, as if realization hit him square across the face, then says with disgust, "Is he buying a Valentine's gift for you?"

Sarah could barely hide a smile, "Apparently yes." Her curiosity is now piqued and she now wants to know what Chuck is going to get her. Casey gives a grunt, "I can't believe I'm gonna go to an outlet mall." Just then Sarah gets a brilliant idea on how to spy on them and stay in cover if Chuck saw her. "Wait, actually I'll go watch him, stay a mile away the mall in case we need back up."

Casey muttered something suspiciously like, "Women and their gifts." Then hung up.

Sarah changed into a t-shirt and jeans, then went to Ellie's room and shook her, "Hey Ellie," she started swatting at Sarah's hands and turned her back to Sarah. "No Devon, I want to sleep."

"Hey Ellie, it's Sarah."

Ellie turned back and opened one groggy eye, "What is it Sarah?" Her voice softening.

"Let's take a trip to Green Fields." "Why, it's two hours away." "Do you want to find out what Devon is getting you for your Valentine's gift?"

Ellie sat up with agility that rivaled Sarah's, her eyes brightened up and looked at Sarah, like a kid sitting on Santa's lap and asking him for a pony for Christmas. "What is he getting for me?"

"I don't know yet, but what I do know is that Devon woke Chuck early this morning, they didn't know I was up as well and I heard them saying that they are going to Green Fields to get us presents. You up for a little trip?"

"Hey Chuck. Chuck! Get up bro, we're here."

Chuck opens his eyes to see what seemed like a Dutch village, with windmills and watermills. He looked around, seeing several girls wearing stereotypical Dutch clothing, handing out brochures.

Chuck and Devon got out of the car, the group of girls walked over to them, giggling and looking Devon up and down. "Hey guys, welcome to Green Fields outlet village mall. Most of the stores here are offering discounts when you use these coupons." Handing them a coupon booklet each. "Have a good day." The girls then went to greet other shoppers.

Devon forcefully placed his arm across Chuck's back who barely stifled a wince, "Alright bro, where should we go first, let's deal with Sarah first, what do you want to get her?"

"I think I would get Sarah a necklace, the only jewelry she has right now are several earrings and the charm bracelet I gave her during Christmas."

"There's a really nice jewelry store that is not too expensive, we can check it out, I'm sure we can get something that she'll love."

After 45 minutes of looking over 50 different items and picturing Sarah wearing each necklace, Chuck thinks he has got himself a winner.

The piece in question is a thin sterling silver necklace that shines almost as bright as Sarah's eyes when they sparkle with delight. All along the shining metal, spacing every once a while, are tiny silver hearts, these hearts are edged with a sparkly metal. Hanging at the center of the necklace, is a slightly larger heart. This heart is coated with sapphire that matches Sarah's azure eyes. The piece is simple and beautiful.

Chuck was really happy with choice, even though it cost him most of his savings, at $350. But he knew that it was worth every penny. He knew that Sarah would love this necklace. The look on her face when she gets it will be all the payment he needed. Devon agreed wholly with his choice, commenting with a simple "Awesome bro."

Devon also bought a present for Ellie at the same store, a slightly more gaudy necklace with a larger ruby.

Outside of the store, two figures looking in with binoculars loved their respective presents. "Wow, I can't believe Chuck bought me such a nice necklace, it must have cost him a fortune."

Ellie smiles at Sarah, "Chuck continually surprises us everyday."

"Come on, they're leaving the store, remember Ellie, just walk normally, or else we will stand out, wait, not yet, wait, okay, now." Sarah pulling Ellie down several times, to keep the enthusiastic elder Bartowski hidden from the two men.

"How are you so good about this spying stuff, Sarah?"

"I used to follow my father around when I was young, when you get caught too many times, you know what gets you caught." Sarah lies to Ellie.

"I think they are going to get us another gift." Ellie whispers to Sarah, as Chuck and Devon head into a chocolate shop.

20 minutes later, the guys come out with more bags and the chase continues on.

"Hey Devon, I think I've got everything I want to get for Sarah, is there anyplace you want to to go?"

"Bro, I want to check out that sports store, I read that they have some awesome biking equipment," "Alright, sure."

After several twists and turns, Chuck and Devon found themselves outside the large sports store, aptly named Extreme Sports Equipment. When they entered, Chuck could see mini waterfalls and plastic figures kayaking on white waters, figures parachuting from the ceiling. The store is filled with the sound of gushing water and Chuck swears he could hear crickets chirping. There is equipment for every known sport, even extreme sports like BASE jumping. It was like heaven for Devon. He made a 360 look around the store, and summed it up with "Awesome place."

Devon went off, with a "I'm gonna check some stuff out, meet you back here in 45 minutes." and left Chuck gawping at the decorations.

After surviving the initial shock, Chuck headed off as well. He looked around, trying to see if he could find some athletic clothing for Sarah, after searching several racks, he still couldn't find the type of spandex that he knew Sarah likes.

Giving up, he decided to ask one of the employees and walked towards the closest one. He tapped him on the back and stared into the face of an Oriental man. Chuck's insides dropped as the all too familiar feeling of a flash begins to rise up.

The man does not notice any difference, "How can I help you today?" Chuck came out of his trance and looked around the store, receiving flashes from 2 other employees, turns around again and stares closer at the store logo and receives another flash.

He was right inside the heart of operations of Yoshiro Nakamura.

"Sir? How can I help you?"

Chuck mutters, "Why does this always happen?"

**So what is this Extreme Sports Store? How does it connect to Yoshiro Nakamura's operations?**

**Can Team Bartowski foil Yoshiro Nakamura's prostitution ring before the Valentine's Day Party?**

**You know whenever someone tells you not to do something, you start wanting to do it and end up doing it, which then pisses people off. **

**So Do Not Press The Review Button! (But in this case, I won't get pissed off.) **


	4. EXTREME! starring Sarah Walker

**Sorry for the Delay, I got stuff to do, parties to go to since its the end of the school year, but I still find the time to finish this chapter up**

**It's my first action chapter hope you guys like it**

**5 days till Valentine's**

_Previously_

_Chuck mutters, "Why does this always happen?" _

"I'm sorry? Could you repeat that sir?"

Chuck looked around nervously, hoping to invent an excuse before the gang member notice something is amiss. Chuck stared straight back at him and nervously said, "Um, I am trying to find a spandex athletic clothing for women that um... you know, actually, I'm just gonna look around and I'll um.... talk to you later." Chuck quickly shuffles away from the gang member.

He looks around the store, looking for that familiar mop of blond hair, "Where the hell did Awesome go?"

Chuck finds his way into a slightly more isolated session and took out his phone and called Sarah, "Sarah, I need some help, where are you and Casey? That huge sports complex, Extreme Sports Store, yes that's the one. It is a front for the Yoshiro Nakamura's ring, some of the employees in the store are also members."

"Okay Chuck, I'm right outside the store at the moment, walk, don't run out of the store, just walk outside do it right now."

"Okay, walk, not run out of the store. Wait, right now? What about Devon? He's still in here. I need to get him out of here as well, it's dangerous in here."

"No, Chuck, get out right now."

"I can't leave Devon, Semper Fi." Sarah curses as Chuck hangs up.

Sarah quickly calls Casey to inform him of the new developments and re-enters the store across from the Extreme Sports Store and finds Ellie.

"Ellie, I think they are done getting presents for us, let's do some shopping of our own now."

"Sure, where do you want to go next?"

"Um, that place you want to check out that's on the other side of the complex, we can go and look around."

"Alright, let me pay for this top first, do you like it?"

Sarah taking occasional nervous glances back at the sports store, hoping to see Chuck walk out to safety.

"Hey Ellie, you know what, I want to look at that jewelry store first, I want to get something for Chuck as well, you should go ahead first, I'll meet up with you afterwards."

"Alright, see you in a bit."

Sarah leaves the store and sees Casey hiding behind a rack of shirts to hide from Ellie, after she turns the corner, he comes up to Sarah

"Where's Bartowski? He hasn't come out yet?"

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"Devon? Devon?" Chuck slowly walks around the store, whispering Devon's name every once in a while, even though he knows it is useless.

Chuck couldn't find him in the biking, surfing or fitness sessions. Chuck catches occasional glimpses of blond hair, but none of them turn out to be Devon's. In his desperation, he even mistaken a blond woman with long hair for Devon.

His phone begins to ring, it's Sarah, "I'm not coming out till I find Devon, Sarah, I'm not leaving him behind."

"I know you're not, he can't see Casey so when you come out of the store, direct him to the Saks Fifth across the complex, Ellie's there, tell him there's a surprise waiting for him there."

"Okay, I can do that, I just need to find Devon first, you have a plan of what we are going to do right?"

"Just get out here as soon as possible."

"Before you hang up... you brought Ellie here?"

"Chuck, we'll talk about this later."

Chuck hangs out the phone and calls Devon again, still no answer. He looks around the store and avoids the path of the store employee. Suddenly he catches a glimpse of him, talking to the first employee he flashed at.

Chuck runs up to Devon, "Hey Devon, I found that thing you were looking for, follow me." Gesturing to Devon to follow him.

Both Devon and the employee look at him, confused. "How do you know what I was looking for?"

"I just know," The gang member is getting noticeably suspicious and is looking at Chuck with accusing eyes, "Your friend just told me what he wants, I'm pretty sure I can help him with all his needs."

Devon recognizes the look Chuck has on him at the moment is his nervous face, "It's alright, thanks for your help, okay, lead the way Chuck." As soon as they are out of earshot of the gang member, "What is it Chuck? Is something wrong bro?"

Chuck looks back at Devon, his nervousness clearly gone, although he is still looking around the store with slight paranoia, "You know where that Saks store is, it's across the complex, I have a surprise for you there." The two of them leave the store and Chuck's paranoia is left behind as well.

"What is it?" "You know I can't tell, it takes away the surprise."

"Alright bro, I'll go there later once I decide what I really want."

"No!" Chuck said a little too quickly and worriedly, Devon asks,"Why?"

Chuck quickly rummages through his brain to find a good excuse, "I think I can get you the same stuff for a better price compared to that place. You just need to tell me what you want." cursing himself at the lame excuse.

Even more surprising than the lame excuse is Devon, he scratches his head and says, "Alright bro, I trust you. Where are you going then?" Devon asks when Chuck doesn't walk with him.

"I want to check out this other place, plus, it's your surprise."

As soon as Devon walks away with a perplexed look on his face, Sarah and Casey pop out from their hiding spot, "Chuck looks at her and exclaims, "You took Ellie here with you to spy on me?"

Sarah looks back at him a bit embarrassed, "Yes, but that's not the point, even then, it worked out perfectly, the two of them are gonna shop together now and they both now assume that I'm gonna be with you. And right now, we have bigger problems to deal with." As the three of them look back at the store.

The team quickly formed a plan, using information from Chuck during his time inside the store and other intel given by the CIA.

They sneaked to the back of the store, Sarah asks Chuck for the twentieth time, "Chuck, what is your role right now?" "Access the manager's computer remotely using the local area network and download the shipment data onto the CIA remote server using your iPhone." Sarah eyes narrowed and says crossly, "And?" "Oh, sorry Sarah, uh... Stay behind you and Casey at all times, do not do anything rash and the only reason I am not staying in the car right now is because I can work the remote access twice as fast as you can."

"So please, stay out of trouble, okay Chuck?"

Sarah picks the lock of the door and the team is in.

Sarah and Casey are slowly creeping about the corners, weapons at the ready, while Chuck is slinking behind them. They met no obstacles on the way to the storage room, where one of 3 access ports to the network can be found. The other two are in the manager's office and in the break room. The storage room was originally designed to be an inventory-keeping system room, however the plan was scraped, which worked to Team Bartowski's advantage.

Sarah turns to Chuck and says in her serious Agent Walker voice, "Okay Chuck, Casey will be outside monitoring the corridors, if..."

Chuck interrupts her, "Yes I know, if anyone approaches or anything happens, Casey will give the signal, we will abandon whatever we are doing and hide or leave and meet at the rendezvous point, depending on what you say. We went over the plan a dozen times, I get it."

Sarah successfully picks the lock to the storage room and goes in with Chuck in tow. Casey immediately sets up two low-frequency motion detectors near the corridor to give him fair warning if anyone is approaching. He then hides himself in another room.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Chuck have started setting up the equipment for the remote accessing of the network. Chuck's fingers worked into a flurry as he scrolled upon log after log, downloading them onto the CIA remote server. Sarah was doing the same along side him albeit at a slower pace.

They are three quarters through the process, when Sarah's beeper came alive It read, "5 + guns.". "It's Casey. We need to go, now!" "We're not done yet, we still have more logs to download."

"Chuck, there's no time, there are people coming over trying to catch us, we need to go now."

"I got an idea, I can put the server up onto the internet using this website, then we can access it outside, this would take a minute."

"Hurry up Chuck! You have 10 seconds, before I drag you out, whether you like it or not."

"Wait, wait," Chuck's fingers began dancing at a pace that was so quick, Sarah could barely make out the shape of his fingers. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, okay, this should do it. I can't believe I didn't come up with this earlier."

Sarah put a finger to his mouth, and whispered, "Shut up Chuck, Casey should be heading towards the rendezvous point right now, follow me, and keep quiet."

Sarah opened the door of the storage room and hears footsteps and voices coming from the right hand side, their escape route. Sarah pulls Chuck towards the left hand side, nearly flooring him with her strength. "Get up Chuck."

Sarah rounded the corner and barged into the door in front of her, a massive employee lunch room, there were currently several employees enjoying lunch.

Two employees, when they saw the duo, stood up and reached for the bulges behind their backs. Sarah sprinted straight at them, using a bench and a table as steps, leaped into the air, landing a spinning kick on one of the thugs. The second one was shocked at the way his partner was floored and panicked, and ran. Sarah grabbed one of the lunch trays and threw it straight at the fleeing man, hitting him in the head. The man crumpled like a sack of potatoes.

The other employees stopped eating and chatting to watch the events around them, at first they were stunned, then panic slowly settled in.

The screams started 5 seconds after the first man went down, those employees began heading for the exits, Chuck and Sarah followed them through a second door, that led them to yet another corridor. This one however, took them back towards the store.

Just then, behind them, the five men with guns, led by the manager materialized behind them and taking pot shots at them. Chuck and Sarah went through the door, Sarah took cover behind some kayaking equipment and gave Chuck simple instructions, "Slowly move towards the entrance and take cover. Call Casey."

The first man came through the door, but he went down as quickly as he came through the door, with a bullet in his head. The shoppers in the store registered a gun shot in the store, panic ensued. Screams erupted all over the place, cries for help came from all angles. Using the panic, Sarah and Chuck started to break for the exit, while the other gang members took chase.

Sarah paused occasionally to shoot back at the gang, taking down another. Chuck and Sarah found several civilians lying on the floor, shot by stray bullets. The two of them suddenly found themselves back in sunshine and the constant growl of Major John Casey. The trio then escaped to the car park, using the confusion at the outlet village to escape unnoticed.

Casey got into his car and drove away, while Sarah and Chuck got into her Porsche. Chuck checked his phone, which he turned off during the chase and found 6 missed calls from Ellie. "Hey Ellie, what's up?"

"Oh my god Chuck, you're okay, I called you when we heard the gun shots. I got so scared when I couldn't reach you on your phone and Devon said we two parted at the sports store."

"No, I'm fine, I was far from trouble, don't have anything missing or even a blemish on my skin. And Ellie, Sarah and I are leaving, we're going back home. Alright, see you later."

Sarah also gets off her phone, "Chuck, Beckman wants to meet us as soon as we get back to Burbank."

Beckman's voice boomed inside Castle Base, "Let me get this straight, the team encountered members from the prostitution gang and then brought Chuck inside to assist with a technical aspect of the mission. After which, he was almost captured or could have been killed when they detected your tinkering with their computer system."

Chuck says meekly, "Doesn't that basically happen almost every mission, you know, the captured part or even the almost killed part?"

Beckman chose to ignore that particular comment, "Agent Walker, Major Casey, I expected the protection of the Intersect to be the highest priority, keep the asset safe, or else I will have to order a 49B."

Chuck looks confused at the grimaced look of his protectors, "49B? What's a 49B?"

Sarah tries to comfort Chuck, "It's nothing, 49B is nothing, just an increase of personnel on your protection detail," which was somewhat of a white lie.

Chuck doesn't look convinced, but before he could voice his opinion again, Beckman calls out again, "Our analysts have successfully downloaded all the data from the server you have hacked into. They have gone over the data and have taken out the fluff in those reports. Mr. Bartowski, your country requires you to go through all these reports to combat forced prostitution. Agent Walker, Major Casey, please make sure the asset finishes the reports before he leaves Castle Base." Beckman signs off.

Chuck looks extremely unhappy at the turn of events, "Oh, come on, that report is," he counts the pages on the computer, "121 pages long." I'm gonna miss ... dinner."

Sarah goes up towards him and gives his shoulder a squeeze and leans closer to him, "It's alright Chuck, just go over the reports and if you need something to eat, I can grab you a sandwich and a yogurt, afterwards, we can go out for a bite."

"Maybe Agent Walker can give you a taste of her apples." Casey quips, turning around towards the weapon-locker. Sarah turns on him crossly, piercing him with ice-cold eyes. Sarah clenches her fists, if Chuck wasn't here, she would have pummeled Casey.

Turning back to Chuck, he has already gone through 4 pages, still nothing. She sits down next to him and leans her shoulder onto his shoulder. To Chuck, it was an intimate gesture, to everyone else around, it seemed like Sarah was simply leaning over Chuck's shoulder to look at the computer screen.

_90 minutes and 82 pages later,_

"Still nothing," Chuck exclaims dejectedly, "I have been sitting for what, an hour and a half and still no flashes."

Sarah rubs his shoulders, "It's alright, come on, you've gone through two thirds, we can get a late reservation at Paul's."

Both Sarah and Chuck turn towards the entrance of Castle, as the door opens. Casey strides in, holding a cheeseburger, followed by a waft of smell from beef on cheese on bun. Chuck was hungry, hearing his stomach grumble, but he doesn't want to be left alone with Casey. He enjoys having Sarah leaning close to him, her feminine smell so close, her hair gently brushing against his face, his shoulders, his arms, as currents blow through the room or when she adjusts her head.

Chuck turns and looks at Sarah, he sees her licking her lips, looking at the burger like it was a mark, she blinks once, and the look was gone, turning back to Chuck with encouragement to finish the reports.

Chuck turns to her and says, "You know, you can get some food if you want to,"

"It's fine, I'm not that hungry. Why? Do you want some?"

For some reason, Chuck does not understand, he replies, "No, we can go out together after." he thinks to himself, 'I am satisfied just having you next to me.'

Sarah leaves her seat for two minutes and comes back with two granola bars, "Seeing as you don't want me to leave, here, something to keep your stomach full."

Chuck gratefully wolves down the granola bar.

_52 minutes and 33 pages after_

Sarah was standing near the back, as she dials to Paul's to make a reservation, Chuck was finishing up the remaining 6 pages.

5 of the 6 last pages caused Chuck to flash. He calls out, "Sarah! Sarah! I've got it. I know when and where their next two shipments of girls are arriving,"

Sarah finishes up her conversation with the manager and races towards Chuck, Casey, also comes out of the weapons locker, "What did you flash on Bartowski?"

"Okay, I wrote down the more complex things, but there's going to be 17 girls from Russia and Romania being shipped here 2 days from now, then 26 Chinese and Japanese girls 12 days from now. Are we going to save them??

Sarah looks at him solemnly, "Come on Chuck, let's go to dinner, Casey will report to the General."

Chuck looks at her, a little horrified at Sarah's apparent indifference to the girls situation of being forced into prostitution. "Sarah? Are we going to save them?"

"No Chuck, I'm sorry, but the General gave specific orders, we cannot save those girls because it would warn the leaders, then the meeting might be called off. We can't let this happen."

Chuck stares at Sarah horrified.

**Can Chuck do anything about this?** **What would happen to those girls?**

**Alright, so how do you guys think about this chapter, hope I did a half-decent job at creating tension for this chapter, review so I know what I can improve on**

**(Deeply Hynotic Voice) Push the button, Push the button, Push the button. If that fails, I like reviews, so please REVIEW!**


	5. Dinner at Paul's

**Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, but in my dreams I own Sarah and Ellie**

**Not beta'ed' all mistakes are mine**

**My first attempt at a long fic, not related to my other fic Chuck vs. Karaoke, if you haven't read it yet, check it out.**

**4 Days till Valentine's**

Chuck has not moved from his position next to Sarah throughout the entire night. He laid on his back and kept his arms on his sides. He could barely sleep and spent more than three quarters of the time simply staring at the ceiling.

Chuck turns his head and looked outside the window, it is still dark, he turns to the other side of the bed and looks at the alarm clock, 5am. He has been lying in his bed for the past 4 hours, doing nothing more than thinking about what happened the previous night. He sighs again, for what must have been the hundredth time in the past 4 hours. He looks back towards the ceiling and surely, the events of the previous night replayed in his mind.

_Chuck stared gobsmacked at Sarah, she has just told him that they weren't going to save the poor girls. _

"_What do you mean you cannot save these girls? I know everything the dock number, the shipment numbers, even the amount of guards there."_

_Casey was walking up the steps when he turns around to say, "Bartowski, orders are orders, we are not going to do anything about this." He slams the door before Chuck could say anything else._

_Sarah lowered her head, knowing that she is disappointing Chuck, "I'm sorry, but that could alert Yoshiro and the rest of the leaders."_

_Chuck was starting to get frantic, "We can pretend that we are part of a routine inspection and just happen to find those girls, we can save them."_

_Sarah shakes her head again, "It is possible that that could work, however, they know someone hacked their system in their cover store and if we also raid their shipment, it's too risky. Yes, there is always a chance that we can save both the girls and arrest the leaders at the meeting. But, a person who can work all the way to the top in that business is very cautious. Yoshiro is one of the most cautious. If we can catch Yoshiro, we can save hundreds, maybe even thousands of girls free of this life."_

_Chuck's face coiled up, like a little boy who has just been told he cannot get any toys for his birthday, "But... I know, we know everything about their plans." He knows that Sarah's logic is right, that doesn't stop Chuck from trying to help everyone possible._

_Sarah's brain began to turn to figure out a way to save the girls and catch Yoshiro at the same time. "Alright Chuck, I can ask Beckman if we could set up a surveillance team, which we were planning to do anyway and get a recon team to follow them to see where their base of operations is. We can raid that place once we arrest the leaders. This way we could save more than this group of girls at their base, but there is always a chance that some girls are sold before we could get to them."_

_Chuck resigned, knowing that this is probably the best way to both satisfy his moral needs and his orders. "Alright, thanks Sarah, it means a lot to me. I'll wait for you outside your Porsche?"_

"_Yea, I'll come out as soon as I pitch the idea to Beckman."_

Chuck sighs again, as that conversation replays in his head, in just another 30 hours, a group of girls ranging from the ages 14-23 will arriving to Los Angeles and will be forced into prostitution. The scene at dinner then replays in his mind. He looks back at Sarah, peacefully sleeping, his thoughts wandered.

'I guess this is an advantage to being a super spy, you don't get too fazed about this kind of stuff."

The scene at dinner then replays in his mind. Dinner at Paul's is always supposed to be romantic, however between the nature of Chuck and Sarah's relationship and the events that Chuck has just witnessed, it is hard to enjoy a good meal with the girl he loves.

"_Chuck."_

"_Chuck."_

_A hand flies towards Chuck's shoulders, finally breaking him out of his thoughts. "Chuck, I called your name five times, you ignored me."_

_Chuck simply stared blankly at his food, only touched at a few places here and there. He murmurs something. _

"_Chuck, this is enough, you haven't said a word since we got here, I even had to order your food for you. I am supposed to be the one who you tell all your thoughts to, your secrets to. Chuck, I have experience with this kind of stuff, just tell me what you are thinking and I can help you get through it."_

_Chuck looks at Sarah for only the second time during the meal, and says at a loud voice,"You know what I am thinking right now? I am thinking about the girls, I know we are having someone watch them, but I just realized, the three days between when we save them and the time they arrive to LA will be hell to them. They will live in constant fear. These girls are innocent, it is not fair for them to be subject to this kind of punishment." Chuck takes a break from his rambling to eat some food._

_He continues, "It's hell for them and we are partly responsible for them suffering for seventy-two more hours." Chuck looks back down onto the table, his voice softer now, "You know what I am also thinking? You know, what if Ellie, or even you are born in an area where they kidnap the girls, I can see you and Ellie being part of that group and suffering as a result, just because of where you were born. Right now, I have an image of nasty men standing over the two of you in a corner, cowering, sobbing, knowing that you are about to be violated both physically and mentally. Having sex with horrible men."_

_Chuck then says with venom, "But I guess it's not hard for you to imagine that, you probably have to do it all the time."_

_Now, it is Sarah's turn to be gobsmacked, she regains her composure and says, with sadness in her voice, "Chuck, this is just not fair, it's not fair... I'm going to the washroom." She grabs her purse and leaves the table._

"_Yea Sarah, just leave... leave just like every time you have to confront your feelings."_

_Chuck does not know why he said either sentence, but he is angry at the way the government is taking this and he takes it out on the closest person to him, the fact that she is a government agent only further aggravates his anger. _

_He then catches a tear drop from her eye as she walks past him. _

_With that, his anger also dissipates, and finally realizes what he has just said to her._

_Chuck looks over to Sarah's seat, where two hundred dollars is laying under her plate, more than enough to pay for the meal. He gets up from his seat and looks around, catching Sarah's blond hair disappearing around the corner of the entrance. _

_In spite of himself, this reminds him of his first fake break-up with Sarah._

_He jumps up from his seat and runs out of the store, Sarah has just gotten into her Porsche, Chuck yells, "Sarah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I was just angry, please stay."_

_If Sarah heard it, she didn't show any sign on her face, she begins the drive towards the exit and in Chuck's mind, also an exit to their relationship._

_She accelerates towards the exit. Chuck can see her face now as she drives closer and closer, it is filled with tears. _

_Chuck does the first thing that comes into his mind, he jumps onto the road, in front of a car that is going at a 50 km/h. He puts his arms up and waits._

_Sarah sees Chuck jump in front of her car just in time, even though she was both sad and mad at him, she still didn't want to see him hurt. She steps on the brakes to the bottom immediately, stepping so hard as if the harder she steps on it, the faster the car will slow down. Even then, the car hit him at 20 km/h, knocking Chuck 2 meters back, with him flat on his face._

_Sarah storms out of the car, "Oh my god, Chuck, are you okay?" The second Chuck stirs and tries to pick himself up, Sarah pushes him back onto the ground, "What the hell do you think you were doing?"_

_Chuck looks at her with his back still on the ground, "I'm sorry Sarah, I didn't mean anything I just said. I was just angry at how the government is treating this. I wanted you to stop, just so I can say I'm sorry."_

_Sarah screams at him, "Do you know how scared I was when you jumped onto the road?" Her voice breaks, and a fresh wave of dry sobs appeared on Sarah's face, her body begins to convulse with dry tears._

_Chuck slowly picks himself up again, Sarah throws a punch at his chest, knocking him down again. He puts him hands in front of his face, readying himself for another strike,"I'm sorry Sarah, I just did the first thing I thought of, I didn't want you to go, I thought I was going to lose you, I thought you might request reassignment."_

_When Sarah doesn't do or say anything, Chuck tries to get up again, placing a hand in front of his face to protect himself from Sarah._

_Sarah looks at him and says softly, "I thought I could have hurt you, or maybe even kill you. I could never live with myself if I did that."_

_Chuck laughs in spite of himself, "How could that kill me, the car was going at like what 20 km? It wasn't that fast."_

_Sarah pierces him with her eyes, "I have seen people get hit by a bicycle at a slower speed and die, because their head cracked against the pavement, so don't laugh about this, you could have been killed."_

_Her reverts back to the softer, more motherly Sarah eyes, "Are you hurting anywhere? Do you see any blood? Here, come closer, let me take a look at your head."_

_Chuck dutifully comes closer, kneels down so Sarah could check for bumps._

"_We're gonna go to the hospital, just to be on the safe side."_

Chuck scratches his head again, feeling that small cut on the back of his head, that moment, he knows that Sarah, the girl, not the agent sincerely cares for his well-being, not just the Intersect in his head.

_Sarah and Chuck are sitting in the waiting room, when a familiar voice calls out his name, "Chuck Bartowski."_

_They look up to see the familiar heart-warming smile of Natalie, "What did you do to yourself now Chuck?"_

_Sarah gives her a hug, "Hi Natalie, Chuck just got a bump on his head, the silly boy."_

_Chuck looks at Sarah, "Do you have to make me sound like a 5 year old." _

_Natalie leads them into one of the examination room, "Alright, let me see your head," Natalie sees the little cuts on Chuck's head and exclaims, "Oh, so are these cuts from..." Natalie makes a banging motion._

_Chuck turns red, while Sarah smiles back, "No, we got into an argument when we were eating at Paul's." Natalie exclaims, "Oh my god, I love Paul's, it's so romantic there. Why did you have an argument?... Never mind, it is not important, so then, what happened after?"_

_Sarah continues her story, "I leave the restaurant, Chuck realizes that he is wrong and follows me out. I was in my car by that time and was going to drive away." Natalie comments again, "Wow, he must have done or said something stupid to make you that angry, I only did that once, you know, walking out halfway through a date, but that was with my high school boyfriend."_

_Chuck raises his hand, "Um... you know I am here, right? Sarah? Natalie?"_

_They both ignore him, Sarah says, "So afterwards, I head to the exit and Chuck did the first thing he thought of to make me stop. He jumps in front of the car. I braked, but still hit him. So that's how he got the cuts. He almost gave me a heart attack, if he didn't get hurt, I would have hurt him myself."_

_Natalie looks to Chuck and slaps him on the face lightly, "You have such a great girlfriend, and first you make her angry, then you jump in front of her car? Are you trying to make everyone close to you mad at you?"_

_Sarah laughs, "Serves him right for saying those things." Sarah is laughing on the outside, but when Chuck looked into her eyes, he could still see that what he said hurt her deeply. _

_Natalie says, "Alright, I just need to fill out some forms, I'll be back in a bit." She leaves the room._

_Chuck immediately turns towards Sarah and grabs her hand with both of his hands, "I'm really sorry, Sarah, I can't bear to see you hurt. Please."_

_Sarah pulls her hand out of his grasp, "I'm gonna leave now, I just want to be alone tonight, I'm sorry, but what you said was unfair, it was completely uncalled for, I always, only have your best interest in my heart. You have money for a cab right?"_

_Chuck looks down to the ground and nods his head, "Yea" He looks up again, with regret in his eyes, "I don't know how many times I need to say sorry, or what I need to do to make you forgive me, but I truly am." _

_Sarah doesn't look at him and leaves the room._

_Natalie comes back in 10 minutes, "Okay, here are your discharge papers, wait, where is Sarah?"_

_Chuck replies with a hint of sadness in his voice, "She left, she's still angry about what I said earlier, she only came to take me to the hospital and to make sure I was alright."_

"_And you gave up without a fight, Chuck, sometimes, you are really dumb."_

_Natalie thinks for a second, "Alright, I'm off in 5 minutes, I'll help you make up with her tonight. Do you know where she is right now?"_

_Chuck's favourite place for thinking and gathering his thoughts was at the beach, after being with him for 18 months, Sarah has also enjoyed going there as well to compose herself. "She's gonna be at the beach, we have a spot there."_

Chuck looks over at the sleeping form next to him, he gently brushes a stray strand of hair away from her face. He can't blame Sarah for anything that occurred last night, only his own stupidity.

_After 30 minutes of preparation, Chuck and Natalie raced towards the beach, looking from Natalie's car, they could see Sarah sitting down on the sand, looking into the deepness of the horizon. Even though it was dark, and they could only see her back, Chuck knew she was crying just by the way she was sitting,where she held her shoulders and the gentle shaking of her head. _

"_Natalie, so should I walk up to her right now?" _

"_Yea, good luck."_

"_Thanks for everything," Chuck gives Natalie a hug and pecks her cheek. "Thanks for everything."_

_Chuck, holding his equipment, sneaks up to Sarah, "I can hear you Chuck, I am a trained CIA agent, you can't sneak up on me. What do you want? I thought I told you I want to be alone tonight." Chuck stops 5 meters behind her. Sarah doesn't even look at him when she speaks to him._

_Chuck turns on the boom-box he brought with him, Savage Garden's Truly, Madly, Deeply echoes across the beach. "I was told that all girls like this song." There were several couples further along the beach, they were sitting before, now the girls are leading the guys into a slow, romantic dance._

"_Is Natalie with you? Is she the mastermind of this?"_

"_No, I came up with it all by myself," Repeating what Natalie told him to say._

"_Then why do I see Natalie's car here? I also saw you come out of the passenger seat."_

"_Nothing really gets by you, I guess that's why you are such a good spy."_

"_Chuck, just get to the point, what is it?"_

_Chuck doesn't answer her, instead, he just sits down next to her, Natalie said this is going to be the hardest part, she might tell him to leave or simply let him stay. She does the latter. _

_They stay like this for 20 minutes, the boom box is now slowly playing Jon McLaughlin's So Close. Chuck slowly shuffles closer to Sarah, now their shoulders are touching, Chuck has been practicing this little speech he made with Natalie throughout his and Sarah's silent sitting on the beach._

"_Sarah, I know what I said to you cannot be easily forgiven, but I just want to tell you that I was not thinking right, I was only thinking about those girls." Of course, Chuck had to modify the contents to the one Natalie help him wrote. "I was just angry at what the government planned and you being a government agent just made me angry at you instead. I kept picturing your face on one of those girls, I just feel that I need to save you, sorry, I meant them. I'm sorry for all those things I said."_

_Chuck reaches into his pocket, taking out the necklace he bought for Sarah that morning. "Here, I want you to have it right now."_

_Sarah looks at him, then glances down towards the necklace, with a surprised look, says "It's beautiful. I love it." _

_Chuck smiles at her, "I know you probably have seen it this morning already, so you don't need to act surprised."_

"_Fine, I thought this was my Valentine's Day gift."_

"_Well, today is as good a day as any, I just thought this moment, this is perfect. I just want you to know how much you mean to me, Valentine's Day is just a day to show how much you cherish your significant other. To me, right now, it is better than any other moment. Turn around, let me help you put it on."_

"_I wasn't kidding."_

_Chuck asks her, "Not kidding about what?"_

"_That I love it."_

_Chuck clasps the necklace onto Sarah's neck, then puts her arm around Sarah, she then leans onto Chuck's shoulder._

_From a distance, Natalie coos at the romantic moment, "I guess my job is done." She then drives back home, happy that she helped Chuck._

_Chuck and Sarah stay in this position till 1 in the morning. They got up and headed to Sarah's Porsche._

"_Hey Sarah, you know, Ellie thinks that we were together after the shopping mall, Natalie also thinks we are going to make up."_

_Sarah whispers into Chuck's ear, "Chuck, are you inviting me to sleep over at your place?"_

"_What else would I suggest?" _

Chuck's alarm clock suddenly started ringing, it's 7am already. He looks up groggily to turn it off, still very tired. Sarah, leaning on Chuck's shoulders, opens one eye lazily, with a smile on her face, "Good morning Chuck."

On a regular day, just hearing Sarah say this, just looking at Sarah when she first wakes up in the morning would have given him a perfect day. But the thought of not doing anything tomorrow for those girls is still nagging him. He thinks, 'This is going to be a difficult day.'

**So, will Chuck somehow convince Sarah to help those girls or will everything go according to Beckman's plan**

**I didn't plan on what to write, everything just came to me as I was going, so I'm not sure how this went. Review!**

**I have an addiction, an addiction that is so bad, I would die if I don't get any, I am addicted to REVIEWS!**


	6. The Day After

**Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, but in my dreams I own Sarah and Ellie**

**Not beta'ed' all mistakes are mine**

**My first attempt at a long fic, not related to my other fic Chuck vs. Karaoke, if you haven't read it yet, check it out.**

**Sorry guys and girls, I had a lot of stuff going on the past 3 weeks, didn't get much of a chance to do some writing. But this chapter is finally complete, it is a somewhat shorter piece. Hope you like it!**

**4 Days Till Valentine's**

Chuck stayed prone on his bed, while Sarah took a shower. After several minutes, he finally decided to get up. With a huge groan, he rolls off his bed and changes into his Buy More Uniform.

Ellie and Awesome are sitting on the table. Awesome sipping from his awful green concoction and eating a large omelet. "Morning bro. You want a glass?"

Chuck's stomach retched as he imagined himself drinking that concoction, "Uh... no thanks Devon. I'm just gonna have the usual, a bowl of Fruit Loops."

He ate his cereal in silence, his thoughts never wander far from that subject. Chuck would later swear he saw a bright light shining, at that moment he looked up and saw Sarah in all her Orange Orange outfit glory.

Chuck sees Sarah everyday over the past 18 months, but he still doesn't understand how the sight of Sarah can stop his blood from flowing, his eyes from blinking, his heart from beating.

Sarah sits next to him and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Chuck smiles at his fourteenth customer of the day and it was not even 11 yet.

The old lady smiles at him, "Alright, so basically, I only need to turn on the computer and put the disc in. The program will automatically install the software right? Then I plug in the camera then it is done?"

Chuck nods his head, "There we go, you've got it." The old lady looks very pleased, suddenly her expression turned to one of confusion and intrigue. "Thank you very much young man, what movie is that showing on the big screen? It looks interesing."

Chuck knew at once that Lester and Jeff were up to their old tricks again.

A quick look at the screen showed them filming a girl's cleavage, she looks probably 16 or 17. Chuck zooms in on them, hiding behind a refrigerator.

Rage fills Chuck, as Jeff and Lester takes advantage of an unsuspecting young girl. The way they are acting seems to Chuck exactly like those in the prostitution ring.

Chuck storms straight at them and rips the camera out of their hands, then proceeds to scream at them. "What the hell are you two doing?" When he realizes that the entire store is staring at him, he lowers his voice to a menacing whisper, "I can't believe the two of you are doing this, she is only 16 for God's sake."

"When did you become so uncool Chuck?" Lester pipes, then attempts to walk away from an exploding Chuck.

Chuck grabs Lester's arm forcefully and slams him hard on a refrigerator, "Listen to me, I will not tolerate the two of you taking advantage of other people ever again." He throws Lester into Jeff then walks away from the two of them.

Chuck goes into the break room and cries silent tears, Casey enters the break room, "What the hell are you doing Bartowski? Are you going to break down like this every time a difficult mission comes by. Get yourself together."

Casey turns to walk away, "Oh, by the way, Big Mike wants to see you, wants to know what was that all about."

Chuck lets out a frustrated groan.

Chuck walks towards the manager's office

He was about to knock on the door when Big Mike shouts, "Bartowski, get in!"

Chuck enters the room and Big Mike says, "Sit down." Chuck does what he says. Big Mike continues on, "What the hell were you doing out there huh? You know who does it look bad on when the higher ups find out? Me! Then I won't be able to sit around here all day eating my Subway sandwich and my donuts."

Chuck, "Yes Big Mike."

"This better not happen again Bartowski, now get out of here! I'm gonna enjoy this delicious sweet onion chicken terriyaki sandwich." Pulling out a footlong sub as he says that.

Chuck leaves the office and continues on with his work. He can clearly see that some of the customers who witnessed his little rant avoiding him, ending up only helping one person over the next hour.

For his lunch break, he heads towards the Orange Orange as usual. After their turbulent day yesterday, Chuck thought that lunch went by pretty well. Having a nice conversation about trivial matters as usual. Even though Chuck knows that Sarah knows about his little rant earlier in the morning, he is happy that that particular matter did not come up.

"Hey Sarah, would you like to come over for dinner tonight, or are you part of the mission tonight?"

"I'm going on the mission tonight."

"Alright, so when are we leaving?"

"Sorry Chuck, both Casey and I decided that you are becoming too emotionally involved with this mission, we thought and Beckman agrees with our assessment that you could jeopardize our mission if you come along. It is better if we show you documents after for you to flash on."

Sarah expected a fight from Chuck, but for once, he was silent. "Alright fine, just give me a call when you need me." He leaves the Orange Orange and returns to work.

Chuck couldn't help but noticing what Sarah had just said. 'becoming too emotionally involved... jeopardize our mission.' Most people who knew the truth about their relationship also said that Sarah is becoming too emotionally attached to him and can cause her to make bad decisions, decisions that can kill them both.

**Later that night, still 4 Days till Valentine's**

Ellie calls out from the kitchen, "So where is Sarah tonight? Did you ask her to come for dinner?"

"She's meeting some other people so she can't make it, but I'll see her tomorrow. You sure you don't need help with the dishes? Awesome's not here tonight and he usually helps you with that."

"No, it's fine, just relax, you can put on the movie when I'm done."

Chuck takes a look at his watch, it's 8pm, the shipment has just arrived. He wonders if Sarah could find a way to save the girls without jeopardizing the rest of the mission.

2 hours later, after watching a soppy romantic comedy with Ellie, Sarah finally called Chuck, "Hey Chuck," "Hi Sarah, how did it go? Could you save them?" Closing his door behind him.

"Sorry Chuck, but everything went according to plan, right now, we have a team tracking the transport, we should be able to find where they are keeping these girls soon. I have a bunch of documents and some notes written in code that I would like you to take a look at tomorrow, meeting at 8, alright?"

Chuck's voice sounds dejected, "Yea,"

"Chuck, I'm really sorry, but there was nothing I could have done for the girls without completely jeopardizing the rest of the mission. "Alright, thanks for trying though." He hangs up, plops himself onto the bed and falls asleep immediately.

Sarah slowly places her phone back on the bedside table, her wall finally came down for a while. After yesterday's tirade with Chuck, she actually became more emotionally involved with the mission. Chuck opened her eyes up and let her see how much pain she can cause by simply doing nothing.

Sarah knows that by doing nothing, it would be more beneficial towards the future, but she could see the suffering with her eyes from her hiding spot.

She could see the girls being released from a cramped up container, large men then stormed in, grabbing girls and tossing them into a truck, where livestock in also placed. The livestock occupy the outer parts, while the girls stay hidden from sight.

The truck was so crowded that the girls could barely move, she could even smell the stench of the pigs from 50 meters away.

Sarah thinks to herself, 'I could have saved them, no, I cannot doubt myself, what I did was for the greater good. The recon team would have found where they are anyway.' But a little voice inside her head continues to nag her.

Before the container with the girls arrived, Sarah had sneaked around, placing several bugs and mini cameras as evidence and for recon, they were placed throughout a wide area, since they didn't know where the loading would take place. However, once the shipment arrive, the bug placed where they were loading the girls did not work. Sarah decided to go and replace it.

She crept towards the hostile lines and past it without much incident. The bug and the camera were just 2 meters away from the container. There were little holes to enable the girls to breathe, she could see the filthy conditions inside, she could smell the reek of manure and piss 20 meters away.

All she needed to do to calm the girls down was to simply tell them that help was coming and to stay alive until then. However, these girls were probably psychologically weak at the moment, they could change their behavior, try to rebel against those men, or the worst, act happier, like something good is about to come along.

No, she cannot risk it, she quickly completed what she set out to do and returned to her observation post. This kept nagging her through the rest of the mission, even though it was accomplished without any hindrance, Sarah kept feeling that she failed her conscious. Something that she thought she lost once she joined the CIA, something that she hadn't felt in a while.

Sarah falls onto her bed, frustrated, even though Chuck had made this one of the least stressful and the most fun mission she has ever been on, sometimes, she really hated the slowly increasing influence Chuck had on her.

**This concludes this chapter, there will be more action starting either the next chapter or two chapters from now. **

**I'm gonna stop with all the creative ways to get people to review. All I'm gonna say is REVIEW!**


	7. Long Time Coming

**Hey, I am sorry for not updating this story for... 2 years, truth is, I got major writer's block, so I stopped, then completely forgot it. I came across couple days ago half finished, so I wrote some more and decided to upload the story. Sorry for the hiatus!**

3 Days till Valentine's

It was a normal day of work for Chuck so far, the Buy More employees up to their usual antics, the only difference is the pink, red, white decorations all over the store, the store looks like completely different. The employees are wearing pink vests with hearts on it, ironic, considering some of the employees' namely Jeff and Lester's idea of love.

Big Mike comes in with a large smile on his face, happy with the in-store decorations and the ridiculous outfits that everyone was wearing, summons the employees before opening time.

"Alright boys and girls, Valentine's day is coming up, you know what that means, frantic gift shopping at the last moment. This brings a smile to my face cause we can charge everything 50% more. Emmitt here is going to make sure all of you do your jobs to your best, cause we can make a lot of profit in the next few days."

"The store is also going to run normal store times on Valentine's Day." Everyone groaned, Lester pipes up, "Big Mike, but it's Valentine's Day, we as employees have a right to go and get laid."

Morgan whispers to Chuck, "Always the romantic."

Big Mike looks at Lester, "What are you talking about, you don't have a girlfriend."

Jeff deadpans, "But Valentine's Day also means "Lonely Women who want a Man Tonight Day", it's my favourite holiday."

Lester finishes Jeff's sentence, "Yes, the women who don't have a date that night will become very sad and desperate and we will be here to pick up the pieces of the broken heart." Chuck still marvels at Jeff and Lester's ability to make even a romantic phrase sound utterly creepy.

Big Mike shouts, "No, in fact, the only 3 people who don't have to work full time that day are Chuck because he has Blondie and Morgan and Anna."

Morgan lets loose a victorious "YES!" and holds out his hand for a high-five from Chuck. He returns the gesture with a half-hearted slap.

"Now let's get to work,"

Just as the doors of Buy More open, Chuck receives a text from Casey, "Castle."

When no one was looking, Chuck sneaks into the home theater room and slips into the hidden hatch.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

Casey says, "We're gonna go and do some recon of the hotel and if possible, find out where the major players are going to stay at and plant some bugs."

Sarah comes out from the weapons locker, Casey continues, "Alright, we can start the briefing now, "Here's the blueprint of the hotel..."

After checking the security camera, making sure there is no one outside, Chuck clambers back up to the home theater room.

He walks towards the Nerd Herd desk to pack up for his "installation job", when Lester pops up in front of him. Chuck lets loose a surprised "Hah"

Lester continues as if it was completely normal, "Listen Chuck, I need to get a girl on Valentine's, I can't be stuck here for it, you have to find me a girl and tell Big Mike I have a date for Valentine's."

Chuck says, "How would I do that? The girls I know are all friends with Ellie."

Lesters looks at him with intense eyes, "A girl of Sarah's quality must have plenty of gorgeous girlfriends that would do things when they drink enough. I'm sure one of them must be looking for a rebound guy"

Chuck's voice fills with disgust, "Um.. sorry Lester, I think all of Sarah's friend's have boyfriends, by the way, how would I ever find a girl that will talk to Jeff?"

Lester shouts at him with a menacing and creepy voice, "I don't care about Jeff in this one, I just need a girl for myself."

Chuck sees Casey looking at him, pointing at his watch, Chuck nods and says, "Listen Lester, I will do what I can and ask Sarah whether any of her girlfriends are looking for a man for Valentine's Day."

As Chuck slinks away from Lester, right as he reaches the exit, Jeff materializes right in front of him almost by magic, forcing Chuck to loose a squeal. "How do you guys do that?"

Jeff's creepy and monotonic voice says, "This is what I'm good at, I need you to find me a girl for Valentine's Day, ask Blondie or Ellie. You just need to find me one, don't worry about Lester,"

Chuck now freaked out, walks away from Jeff, saying, "I'll do my best."

Jeff, with the same voice, just a little bit louder, "Tell them I like drinking and I am a professional stalker, girls dig that."

Once Chuck leaves the Buy More, Casey's strong arm grabs his biceps, "Take any longer would you? Let's go, change into these clothes," thrusting a bag of clothes into Chuck's arms, "You need to look sharper to get into the Hyatt hotel."

Chuck goes into the Nerd Herder and drives off to the meeting place, looking sharp in a tuxedo.

The van arrives and Chuck clambers into the back, freezing as he sees Sarah changing in front of him, only to hear her yell at him, "Get in the van Chuck! We need to go." Chuck puts a palm in front of his eyes, attempting to be a gentleman and not stare at her curves. However, he finds himself taking peeks at her as she takes her dress out, catching a glimpse of Casey looking at him with a wicked grin on his face. Sarah starts pulling on a sleek green dress that hits all her curves, in Chuck's eyes, the perfect way. "Ummmm… guys? What is our cover this time?"

Sarah grunted between each pull, "Same as the last… umph… hotel mission, escort … and business man."

"I have to say I am a big fan of thatttt…" Chuck gulps down the last words of his sentence as both Casey and Sarah glares at him.

_20 minutes later_

Chuck and Sarah are preparing the final phases of the insertion, while Casey is looking out of the tinted windows, looking for any possible guards.

"Alright you're clear." Casey's voice boomed in their headphones.

Sarah and Chuck drive out from their hiding spot and into the hotel driveway in a purple Maserati. Chuck is wearing an immaculate suit that fits him perfectly and in one hand he holds a briefcase, while Sarah wearing that exquisite, sexy dress, this would normally be a classy cocktail dress, but for the fact that Sarah added knee high boots and heavy make-up that simply made her look like the role. Chuck tosses his keys to the valet and passes him a $20 bill, "Take good care of my baby." Sarah hooked her arm around Chuck's elbow and whispered, "Chuck, stop stealing glances at me, you're a high powered business man, this should be normal for you." Sarah chuckled inside her head, knowing that her look at the moment could turn almost any man and even some woman into goo.

Chuck, embarrassed to be caught in the act stared straight forward. Fortunately, he kept his composure as they walked into the hotel lobby. He can see the jaws of the bell boys and doormen dropping straight to the floor. He walks over to the receptionist, "Good morning madam, Charles Carmichael. I have a reservation for a room for the night…" He stares at Sarah, and smirks, "Well... maybe only a couple of hours."

The receptionist is embarrassed, all the people in the hotel can see that she is an expensive prostitute and this business man is flaunting her in the hotel. She stammers, "Uh… Okay, I see your reservation, here are your key cards… But sir, it is against hotel policy to have … umm… guests." She places a strong emphasis on the word guests.

Chuck smiles at the receptionist, slips her two $100 bills and says, "Thanks for telling me that, but I am pretty sure I am here all by my lonesome." He winks at her, puts his hand on the small of Sarah's back and heads to the elevator.

Inside the elevator, Sarah looks at Chuck, clearly pleased, "Wow Chuck, very suave. You're acting more and more like a spy."

Chuck winks at her again, "I have a very good teacher."

A voice comes in their ears, voice filled with sarcasm, "As much as I love a good chick flick, we have a mission to do, get ahold of yourself Bartowski."

Chuck mutters back into his microphone, "Why me Casey? Sarah started it."

Sarah exclaims an exasperated, "Hey!"

Casey's voice now filled with a tone that Chuck recognizes as the one he used before firing his guns, "Cut it you two, finish the mission first, then you can continue the soap opera the two of you call real life."

Chuck and Sarah fell silent, as soon as the door opened, they walked quickly to their suite, opened the door and took out the tools hidden inside Chuck's briefcase.

Sarah turned back into Agent Walker, "Okay, like most new hotels, the entertainment system here is partially connected to the hotel network, Chuck, plug in the computer."

Chuck does as he is told, "Okay, I got this," After 30 minutes of maneuvering in the hotel network, Chuck finally wrangled the hotel guest list.

Sarah reports to Casey, "Okay, Chuck got the guest list, we'll send it to you right now, I'm pretty sure they are all using fake names, so check against all the databases to see which rooms are our targets."

Chuck looked at the names and flashed, "Ahh… Sarah! He points to 5 names on the list, these ones are the ones the leaders are staying at."

Casey orders, "Okay then, try and sneak inside and bug the rooms, one of the rooms is 2 floors above you, go check that one out first, I'll give you instructions on how to get to the other ones. The bugs in your briefcase are new, none of the bug scanners can pick them up as of yet."

Sarah changes out of her dress and puts on her skin-tight mission garments and heads to the balcony, "Come on Chuck." He follows her out and ties a rope that is barely thicker than hair on his waist, "Uhh… Sarah? You sure this is safe?" Sarah fires the anchor above to their destination, smiles sweetly at him, "Well, you'll just have to see." And shoots up.

Chuck ties a towel around his mouth, and does the same, releasing a muffled scream all the way to the top. Sarah and Chuck peek up into the room and sees a big Russian thug and a smaller, but still intimidating Asian man sitting in the room, watching TV.

Chuck flashes as he sees their faces and informs Sarah, "They are both Yoshiro's men." "Casey, check the guest list, see if all those rooms are booked."

After 3 minutes, Casey answers, "Yes. We have to assume that they have done the same in all the rooms. It's actually pretty smart, if anyone found out which rooms they are in, it will be near impossible to bug the rooms. Good news though, I think I have found the room they will have the meeting in, go scope that place out."

Sarah acknowledges, "Okay Casey."

After a hand motion by Sarah, they both silently drop back to the balcony and walk back into their room, "Oh, this might be a bad time to ask, but how do you think I should ask Ellie whether she can find dates for Jeff and Lester for Valentine's?"

* * *

**So yea, review and tell me whether you guys are still interested in finding out where this story is headed, I think I still remember the majority of my plot line, so if you want to see more from this story, press the button down below and review. By the way, is it just me or is Season 4 a lot better than Season 3? I think the writers finally know how to write a Chuck with Intersect skills. I also think that whenever Chuck flashes, it is always kung fu, there is not enough of the random dancing, guitar playing and other cool skills that Chuck can flash. Comments?**


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